


Fallow

by cleanlittlesecret



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Gen, Onizuka Gou-centric, Post-Season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 17:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19300537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleanlittlesecret/pseuds/cleanlittlesecret
Summary: The day he wakes, Gou is visited by an old friend.





	Fallow

Except for the faint hum of machines around him and the whir of air conditioning overhead, Gou’s hospital room had fallen silent. The wall behind him was papered with crayon drawings telling him he was loved and calling him a hero and wishing for him to get well soon so he could finally come home, and the table beside him was heaped with daisies and clovers and sunflowers that he could only hope hadn’t been stolen from someone’s garden. He sat with the bed propping him half upright as his dry eyes stared into the distance, but when a soft tapping drew his attention to the window looking into the hallway, he grinned and pushed himself up. “Makoto!”

Glass muffled the response as his old friend held up a hand to stop him before hurrying beyond the window’s frame. The door opened, and Makoto leaned his head into the room. “Is it okay for me to come in now, or do you need to rest?”

“I’ve done enough sleeping to last me for a good while.” Gou let out a shaky chuckle. “Come in, come in. It’s too quiet in here anyways.”

Makoto stepped inside and closed the door with one arm tucked behind him at an odd angle. He had on the uniform for Den City High School, so he must have come straight to the hospital after classes ended for the day. “It’s been a while, huh, Gou?”

The rote phrase carried a fresh sting. When he'd left his career as a Charisma Duelist, Gou had lost contact with everyone tied to the orphanage, including Makoto. At the time, it had felt like casting off a burden, ensuring he wouldn’t be held back by any attempts they might have made to stop him, but now he saw that he just couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing everyone. His chest ached as he sighed. “It’s good to see you again. What do you have there?”

“Oh!” Makoto’s eyes flicked to the side as if just remembering what he was hiding, and he laughed sheepishly. “Well, I wanted to bring you something, and I figured you could really use some food, so…” He held up two bags, one brown paper and one white plastic. “How do cheeseburgers, fries, and ice cream sound?”

“Like a feast.”

Makoto laughed. “Yeah, I know being in the hospital kind of sucks.” He set the bags on the bed, and as Gou inspected their contents, Makoto pulled over a chair from the wall.

The food was still hot and fresh, pure indulgence for his starved body, and Gou wolfed it down in alternating bites of burger and fries so neither could go cold before he could taste. When that was done, he turned his attention to a small container of chocolate ice cream, but this time he ate with slow bites to savor it. Despite the months that had passed since they’d last seen each other, the quiet was easy as always, and the timing felt natural when Makoto cleared his throat to speak.

“Sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. I didn’t see the message until school had let out.”

Gou shrugged. “With everyone else in here, we wouldn’t have gotten to talk much anyways.”

Glancing over the new decorations, Makoto smiled. “They hit this place hard, huh?”

“I’d forgotten what they could be like. All the kids had so much they wanted to show me and tell me about, and no one wanted to leave.”

“Mm. Speaking of which, we haven’t talked in a while. What have you been up to?” With a flinch, Makoto shook his head. “I mean, I know about working for SOL Tech and all…that. Besides that, what else?”

“I…” He frowned. “I don’t think there was anything else.”

“Oh, come on!” Makoto leaned forward. “What about those two guys? They’re your friends, right?”

“We’re just coworkers.”

“Really?” Makoto furrowed his eyebrows. “They were really worried about you, though. From what I heard, they’re who called the others to let them know you were in the hospital.”

Another shrug. He’d never really thought about how Kenmochi and Yoroizaka viewed him, but to him they were coworkers and therefore belonged in a different part of his life than the orphanage and its people. To confuse the two would be like treating Zaizen Akira and his personal manager as the same person.

“I could have helped, you know,” Makoto said. “I’m a good Duelist, and that’s what you were doing as a bounty hunter, right? Dueling people?”

“You are a good Duelist, but this work is not for you.”

Gentle as he was, Makoto didn’t have the nerve required to hunt people, but those wide eyes hardened. “Then why was it for you? Will you go back to it after you get better?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” Gou bought himself time to think with a small spoonful of chocolate. The question of what to do now had hung over him since he’d woke, but the answer was too heavy to grapple with just yet, a turning point that could change everything. “I do know I want to go home, but I can’t say much beyond that.”

Makoto perked, mouth opening as if to gasp before quirking into a smile instead. “You are coming back to the orphanage?”

Gou nodded. “Those kids are what I fight for. I won’t forget it again.”

“Thank goodness!” Makoto relaxed into his seat. “I always knew you would come home eventually, but I know how stubborn you can be too. Now everything can finally go back to normal.”

Back to normal? No, that wasn’t what he was doing. If that had been possible, he wouldn’t have gone so far in the first place. His world had started crumbling long before he’d become a bounty hunter, so even if he’d never turned to SOL Technologies, he would have found another warpath to burn. Even thinking about the chip in his brain made him feel sick now, but he couldn’t deny how much he loved that power, how it had seemed _right_.

“No…I can’t go back.”

Makoto blinked. “What?”

“I’m going to evolve from this.” Gou looked at his hand, bones and tendons showing through the skin, and balled it into a fist as if to steel himself. “The old Gou is gone forever, so I’ll become a new me.”

Makoto raised his eyebrows. “Another turn, huh? You’ve always been fond of doing that.”

As long as he had the support of Makoto and everyone else from the orphanage, Gou didn’t need them to understand. As soon as he was healthy enough, he would have the chip in his brain removed and be entirely human once again, all the raw material he needed to create a new Onizuka Gou. He would fight for everyone, but this lesson would be for him alone.

He had no choice but to grow.


End file.
